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Exotic termites are finding love in the Palm Beach County heat

It’s not just tourists who enjoy Florida’s warm winters, termites are binging on the heat too. And with abnormally warm temperatures the past four winters, the wood-noshing pests are having a field day.

“I haven’t seen swarms like this in 10 years,” said Greg Rice, marketing director for West Palm Beach-based Hulett Environmental Services. “There is no exactly correct answer as to why it’s such an active swarm season this year, but it is.”

Rice said Hullet’s termite business in May was up 27 percent from the same month in 2014. Guarantee Floridian sales manager Carlos Pedroso said the company’s termite treatments — tent fumigations and treatment for subterranean termites — have doubled this year from 2014. West Palm Beach-based Beach Environmental owner David Sprague said business was up about 40 percent last year and is on track for another increase this season.

Termites like heat and moisture. Even an increase in humidity can be a swarm trigger.

This spring — March through May — was the warmest on record for South Florida, according to the National Weather Service in Miami. In West Palm Beach, the average temperature for the three-month period was 78.3 degrees, 4.1 degrees warmer than the historic norm.

(PHOTO: Danger signs are posted on a home being tented for termites in West Palm Beach.)

So all those circus tents going up around town doesn’t mean Barnum & Bailey is here; it means termites are making a banquet of the neighborhood.